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I was in Carson California last month at their City Council meeting to speak on behalf of the resolution I asked them to pass to approve participating in a feasibility study on community choice aggregation (CCA).

Carson was the sixth city to have our resolution on their agenda, the five others having already passed it. Like in each of the other cities, someone in Carson, this time the City Manager, had the same question for me,

“I understand all the CCA program stuff you’re telling us about Joe, but what I don’t get is what’s in it for YOU?”

That’s what someone always asks when I pitch them our South Bay Clean Power initiative, especially when they find out I’m doing this work full time. They want to know who is paying me.

When you work pro bono, turn down all job and consulting offers on the issue, and say “no,” to $18,000 a month gigs offered you by people in this growing field, people get real suspicious and uneasy.

You friendly neighborhood Creative Greenius is one of the keynote speakers at next Tuesday night’s California Crossroads to talk about his work with South Bay 350 Climate Action Group and South Bay Clean Power to help the 15 cities of the South Bay and their neighboring communities 100% renewable energy by 2025 and why they need to get there that quickly.

To those of you who know me best and have been reading Creative Greenius since we started publishing in October 2007 it seems pretty silly that any candidate for elected office would seek my endorsement or think that it would do more good than harm.

And you would think that would be especially true for anyone running to become our United States representative from this 33rd Congressional District – the person who will be following the great Henry Waxman in that position.

But in fact, both Wendy Greuel and Marianne Williamson have each reached out to me and I have taken their asks seriously and with more thoughtfulness than usual given the crossroads we find ourselves at climate wise. Without Henry Waxman as our Representative we lose a giant.

I’ve spent time talking with Marianne Williamson’s policy advisor over the last couple of weeks and just this Wednesday I had the pleasure of meeting with Marianne one-on-one for about 90 minutes at my own spiritual sanctuary, our beloved South Coast Botanic Garden on a spectacular summer-like morning. Continue reading →

My California State Senator, Ted Lieu, doesn’t know who I am because I have never made a strong enough impression on him during the many times we have talked over the 21 years I’ve lived in Torrance. Because of that Ted cannot remember my name and always asks for my card when I shake his hand and say hello. It pains a sensitive soul like myself to know I have made myself so forgettable and non-noteworthy, but all of us must live in the shadows of those who loom so much larger than ourselves.

I understand that it’s hard for Ted because he has met so many thousands and thousands of far more vivid people than me in the thousands and thousands of campaign events and fundraisers Ted has spent his time at during his decades running for and holding different offices as he moves his way up the rungs of political office. It no doubt makes it harder still because I have never given Ted any money even though he has mailed me two decades worth of requests for campaign donations. And it was my fault for not having a card with me earlier this week when I was part of State Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi’s press conference in Hermosa Beach.

So to help Ted out, I just received this big oversized card with my name on it that might help him remember me the next time we run into each other – but because I still won’t be sending Ted any money or voting for him in his run for the great Henry Waxman’s seat, I’m not counting on this either. Continue reading →

For those of you wondering what your friendly neighborhood Greenius does when he’s not blogging or hanging out with 999 other climate activists at Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Corps training, the answer is he works for a living. And he works hard in his role as Director of Strategic Partnerships and Outreach for CBS EcoMedia. When he’s not working away at his Manhattan Beach office with his fellow EcoMedia colleagues, or on the road traveling from community to community across the country participating in ribbon cuttings, groundbreakings, grand openings and celebrations of environmental EcoAd funded projects, healthy WellnessAd funded projects or student related EducationAd funded projects, your Greenius is now helping to tell the EcoMedia project stories in videos like this one:

While I wait for the rest of this country to wake up and smell the climate change, every single day I work at EcoMedia I’m making positive progress on behalf of the environment, on behalf of the health and wellness issues that go hand in hand with an unhealthy ecosystem and on behalf of improving the education young people need to survive not just the job market but to face the challenges of global warming and the consequences it will bring them. It’s all thanks to EcoMedia’s President and Founder, Paul Polizzotto and the vision he had that made EcoMedia a reality and made it a division of CBS. And of course to Paul’s great eye for talent.

And just in case you were wondering – the Greenius speaks only for himself personally with this blog post and no one should think I’m speaking on behalf of CBS EcoMedia or that they approved this message. And shouldn’t that be more than enough for you when it comes to weight and credibility? Yeah, I thought it would.

After five years of studying, writing, advocating, volunteering, community organizing and now working professionally to try and make a positive difference on the issue of global warming – all in the face of relentlessly increasing world temperatures and rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions – I have reached the point of one last stand.

We may well be as doomed as doomed can be already – as I frequently tell my friends that we are, and the “Hell and High Water” may already have arrived earlier then even Joe Romm’s dire predictions, but I’m not quite ready to cash in my chips and give up the ghost. I can’t offer you any scientific hope to hang your sporty new fedora on, or any magic bullet news that might yet save the day, but I just don’t have it in me to piss on the fire and call in the dogs so I can go quietly into that good night.

In June I was interviewed by Rodrigo Padilla of The Green Show produced by Lawndale’s Environmental Charter High School and talked about my volunteer work with the South Bay Environmental Services Center and my other environmental activism.

It’s been weeks since I’ve opined on this page and one of the reasons why is the time it’s taken launching two new columns for AOL’s Patch.com. I’m writing a weekly column on environmental issues for Hermosa Beach Patch and a weekly column on bicycling and the South Bay Bicycle Coalition news for Redondo Beach Patch.

AOL is backing Patch.com with an initial $50 million and hiring journalists to provide hyperlocal coverage in communities of 15,000-100,000 on both coasts. And I’m helping to provide that coverage in Redondo and Hermosa including shooting photos and video.

I’ve only been doing it for or a month or so, but so far I’m digging the experience and happy to broaden my local readership and Creative Greenius reach.

Unlike yours truly who has nothing BUT particular insight and perspective on not only this issue but so many more. And that’s exactly what a brain dead populace is looking for these days and exactly why I’m stretching my already overburdened schedule to bring my fellow South Bay citizens Patch pieces like these I’ve already had published:

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The Creative Greenius

Welcome to Creative Greenius.
My name is Joe Galliani and I've been blogging as the Creative Greenius since October of 2007. I'm responsible for what you read here and I stand behind everything I write. I offer A Brighter Shade of Green that includes reporting, analysis, opinion, commentary and policy advisement.